The New Hampshire Parole Board has denied parole for Kat McDonough, the 21-year-old accomplice in the murder of UNH student Lizzi Marriott in 2012.
Marriott's family members crammed into a small room alongside McDonough's parents inside the Men's Prison in Concord, New Hampshire, where the state holds parole hearings. McDonough appeared through video from the Women's Prison in Goffstown.
McDonough made her case for parole.
"I have had a lot of time for my eyes to open," she said crying. "I want to start over."
The three Parole Board members did not buy it.
"I really wish you were here in person because I don't think there are any tears on your face," said board member Mark Furlone.
Tears were unavoidable for Bob Marriott, as he relived the painstaking months of searching for his daughter, Lizzi, and the debilitating pain that comes with losing your little girl.
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"For months I cried everyday, taking a shower and driving in the car was the worst for me," Marriott said. "The murder of Lizzi will be the most defining moment of my life until the day I die."
McDonough is up for parole in January, but the board denied her plan to go live with her father in Portsmouth. Instead, they sent her back to her cell and required that she seek mental health counseling in prison.
McDonough was sentenced on July 2013 to one and a half to three years for hindering the investigation. She admitted to luring Marriott to her Dover apartment as a second sexual partner for her boyfriend Seth Mazzaglia. When Marriott denied his advances, he strangled and raped her.
The couple then disposed of her body, which to this day, has not been recovered.
"We will never get to see our dear Lizzi live out her dreams or make our family whole," said Marriott's uncle, Anthony Hanna.
Marriott's father says the justice system in broken. He is angry that a woman who watched his daughter die and then threw away her body, could be charged only with a crime against process and not a crime against a person.
"This was not a victimless crime, Lizzi is a victim, my wife is a victim, my whole family is a victim," Bob Marriott said.
If McDonough meets the requirements of seeking mental health counseling, she can apply again for parole with a new parole plan within four to six months. The board told her to come up with an out-of-state parole plan because of the high profile case.
Seth Mazzaglia was convicted of murder and is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
